W. Thomas Smith, Jr., National Review
THE GREEN ZONE (Baghdad) — All quiet on this Saturday morning here in Emerald City: Sitting here in the media compound alternating between a Gatorade and a cup of coffee, checking e-mail (which I've been unable to do in a few days), and looking through the window at a pair of Black Hawk helicopters thundering past. . . .
As far as the weather; still incredibly hot and lots of fine, blowing sand everywhere ... on and in everything.
The images we all see of the heavily accoutered U.S. troops speaks nothing to the extreme temps they are operating in, especially the combat arms types — infantry, spec ops, and the poor bloody tankers.
It's so easy to become dehydrated out here.
An Army captain back in Kuwait described how soldiers and Marines in combat sometimes cut open the top of an IV fluid bag, mix-in some Kool-Aid powder from an MRE, and drink it. "It tastes pretty bad, he said. "But it's almost instant rehydration, and soldiers keep fighting." |